Invista takes next step toward Chinese nylon 6/6 plant

By: Steve Toloken

May 16, 2013

WICHITA, KAN. — Materials firm Invista has moved a step closer to building a nylon 6/6 plant in Shanghai, announcing May 15 that it has signed an agreement with the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park to reserve land for the facility.

Wichita, Kan.-based Invista previously announced in January that it would build a feedstock plant in Shanghai to make the nylon precursor hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and said at the time it could eventually include nylon 6/6 production.

“It is our intent to build a world-scale polymer facility in a timeframe that would align with our HMD project,” said Warren Primeaux, president of Invista Intermediates, in a May 15 news release. "We believe China’s continued strong GDP growth will drive increasing demand for durable goods — products that can be enhanced by the use of nylon 6,6.”

The agreement reserves land adjacent to the planned HMD plant and a planned adiponitrile plant, and the company said it marks its “next step as it continues to make progress on plans for an integrated nylon 6/6 polymer facility in China.”

The company said it plans to have the HMD plant operating by mid-2015 and had recently secured project approval and wholly foreign-owned enterprise status from Chinese authorities for the HMD facility.

The release did not offer any timeframes or capacities for any potential nylon 6/6 factory.

It said investment in the combined site would be more than $1 billion, the company’s largest capital investment to date.